So March came, and March went, and some building happened. It started with the steering column and the bush mounting it to the chassis. The hole that it has to go into is too small, and it’s in some fairly robust steel plate. It’s a fairly hefty job making that bigger with the proper tools and, well,we don’t have the proper tools. So we did what any good boer would, and made a plan (Ons het ‘n plan gemaak). That plan involved a couple of U-shaped pieces of aluminium, which slotted together to make a tight fit around the steering bush. These were then bolted to the original mount point, making a very solid mount for the steering bush. A picture is worth a thousand words (see above). The bolts, as shown in the picture, are arranged in an optimal pattern for strength and stability. The layout was determined using a genetic algorithm on a beowulf cluster with 16453 cores.

The steering linkage needs to be lengthened, so it’s chopped in half first. The steel round-bar is 15mm indiameter, making it perfect for 19mm tubing with a wall thickness of 2mm. This is pretty common stuff, and you’ll need about 500mm. I have 5.5m still available, so let me know if you need a piece.

Below you can see the basic idea of what needs to be done, using a piece of curtain rail to line things up. In case you were wondering, curtain rail is not recommended for your final steering link.

We also upgraded our steering rack mounts. Previously they were simple steel flat-bar brackets and poly-bushings. While this is perfectly adequate ina road car, ours is meant to be a racing car. So we got ourselves a set of the new Locost-supplied aluminium brackets.

These are fairly solid and tight-fitting brackets,and should improve the feel and rigidity of the steering immensely. We’ll also be looking to upgrade the steering column rubber jointing at some stage.

When we were fitting the engine, we chopped quite a lot off the bell-housing. To cover the holes and add a bit of the mechanical strength back, a plate was cut and drilled. This will be attached using 4mm HT bolts. The remaining holes will be filled with fibreglass.

We’ve made some progress on mounting the radiator. First the aluminium edges were reinforced with another strip of aluminium. Then we got our radiator fan; just a simple aftermarket fan from Midas. It fits quite snugly.

Our main concern is that once full of water, the radiator is going to be quite heavy. It is also going to be bumped around a lot, so you want it to be securely mounted.

The chassis already has two mount points welded in place, and it was possible to bend these to be in the right position for the radiator.

Four small rectangles of steelplate were fashioned, both to mount the fan to and to mount the radiator to the chassis. We still need to weld the upper mount brackets to the chassis to finish off the radiator.

Although the picture above may look like a piece of fine art, it is in fact a fuel-line reducer (thanks Ronnie!). Unfortunately instead of displaying it in aglass case, it’s going to be hidden under the chassis covered in oil and grime.

The fuel pump has been mounted, and now needs to have the piping finalised to complete the fuel line loop. As you can see in the photo above, the various parts were marked to make reassembly easier.

The picture above shows the fuel pump in place, as viewed from below the chassis. The low-pressure filter is included simply to protect the pump from any metal shavings or other rubbish that might exit the fuel tank. The high-pressure fuel filter will be mounted under the bonnet in the engine bay.

Finally we started to mount the bodywork. The nose-cone is mounted with two 6mm bolts on each side. These attach to the chassis using 6mm riv-nuts. The radiator is a tight squeeze inside the nose-cone, but it does fit. It’s amazing how much smaller the car seems once the nose-cone, bonnet and scuttle are in place.

That’s pretty much all the progress to date. Still a lot to do!

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We’ve also sent the gearbox in to be examined and overhauled, as well as have the front of the input shaft machined. More will follow on this when it’s done, but essentially it will be machined to 10mm diameter, and shortened (that still needs to be measured). Then a bush will be installed in the crank shaft (I believe this is a 15mm OD, 10mm ID bush), which acts as a pilot bearing for the gearbox input shaft.

In terms of actual work done, we’ve largely assembled the suspension parts. It’s amazing how quickly this adds considerable weight to the frame. The chassis used to be relatively easy to pick up, but now it’s quite a beast.
Assembling the suspension resulted in us finding a slight flaw. The front left top mount point for the shock is positioned fractionally too far into the chassis (or the support strut next to it  is too far out). This means that although there is plenty of space for the bolt once it’s in, there isn’t enough space to actually get it in. The error doesn’t seem big enough to affect the suspension geometry, but it will need to be treated differently. The best solution we’ve got so far is to use a stud threaded on both ends, with no bolt head. There is enough space to insert the stud, and then it will have to have a nut on each end.
No pictures of the suspension as yet, will either post again or update this one.
In terms of parts, we now have a petrol pump and radiator overflow bottle. The pump is for a BMW E46, and it came from AutoZone (cheapest price). The one from Midas and Goldwagen is over twice the price (twice the quality? Time will tell).

The expansion bottle is for a Golf Mk3. It has a “gas” inlet pipe at the top, and a water expansion line at the bottom. Make sure you get the cap as well, since it comes separately. Once we have full clarity on the plumbing configuration, it will go up on the web.
On paper, the expansion bottle on paper didn’t cost too much. However, the actual purchase turned out quite emotional, expensive and included a trip to the police station. How’s that for an intro…

Essentially what happened is that I was doing the Saturday morning shop, and I figured I’d pop to Goldwagen and try to get the expansion bottle. En route, the traffic light ahead turns red, and I pull up with one car ahead of me. Out the corner of my eye I see movement, and notice that a truck, parked in front of the shops on my left, has his reverse lights on. Suddenly it starts moving – straight towards me. I started hitting the horn, with increasing panic, to indicate my presence. Unperturbed, possibly even encouraged, he keeps coming. The crunching noise and rocking motion of the car felt similar to those moments just after slicing your finger while chopping veggies. You can see it, and you felt the pressure of it, but there isn’t any pain yet. For a moment you think “maybe it didn’t really happen”. Then it starts bleeding.
I got out of my car, utterly speechless. He was very apologetic, and possibly as shocked as me. Eventually all I could say was “do you realise how much I love my car?”. Sigh.

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